Water Metaphors Research Articles

Adriano Balbi and the definition of oceans, seas and ‘Open Mediterraneans’: The dialogue between geography and cartography with Evangelista Azzi

In the first half of the 19th century, Adriano Balbi (1782–1848) was one of the greatest geographers in Italy and Europe, having an extremely vast and constantly updated scientific output. He tried to keep up with new discoveries of ‘unknown and unexplored' territories. His work influenced geographers and cartographers, who used it as a source. Evangelista Azzi (1793–1848), a cartographer and military topographer from Parma Duchies, produced a wide corpus of school maps. His Mappamondo (1838) was conceived as an enormous wall map (2 × 4 mt), that summarised the geographical, historical and ethnographic knowledge of the time, as an encyclopaedic work. To collect data, he used contemporary geographical and cartographic works, including those of Adriano Balbi, having a close epistolary relationship with him. Balbi understood the importance of a cartographic restitution of his works and supported Azzi transferring numerous notions to him. Among these were the seas and oceans, which in the world map are named according to Balbi's works. The Mappamondo is the first map where the Balbi's definition of ‘Open Mediterraneans’ appears. The paper's primary objective is to identify the dialogue between geographers and cartographers in conveying a common narrative of the seas. Considering Azzi's cartographies as the visual synthesis of Balbi's geographical proposals, the paper explores a direct transposition of knowledge from text to map. Finally, the metaphor of water and liquid worlds lends itself well to observing the dynamism of small pre-unitary Italian actors that dialogued on global issues, going beyond state borders and moving within a common Risorgimento context.

When the Self is Blue: A Journey through the Bhagavad Gita to Spiritual Healing

This paper examines how feelings of depression, characterized by a sense of inferiority and dejection, can be transformed into joy and contentment. The author proposes that by aligning oneself with the inherent cheerfulness of human nature, one can transition from despair to happiness. Drawing upon the metaphor of water's resilience, the paper contends that misery is a temporary state that can be overcome through devotion to the divine. This is exemplified by the natural joyousness exhibited by children. The ancient Indian text, the Bhagavad Gita, is explored as a profound source of wisdom that can guide individuals on the path to mental wellbeing. Depression is an increasingly prevalent mental health concern, characterized by feelings of hopelessness, sadness, and lack of purpose (Bhatia et al.). While modern psychotherapy has developed various techniques to address depression, the application of ancient spiritual wisdom can offer a complementary approach (Bhatia et al) (Dhillon). The Bhagavad Gita, a revered Hindu scripture, presents a comprehensive philosophy for navigating the challenges of the human condition, including the experience of depression (Bhatia et al) (Dhillon). The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture, is a part of the epic Mahabharata and depicts a dialogue between Prince Arjun and the Lord Krishna, who serves as his charioteer. The text explores the moral and philosophical challenges faced by Arjun as he prepares for battle. Arjun's depression stems from the anticipated loss of life and moral degradation, leading him to question the justification of the war.

Water as Metaphor of Human Beings in English and Vietnamese Poems

This study aims to investigate the conceptual metaphors of water, which are metaphorically used to describe human beings, emotions, behaviours and relationships in English and Vietnamese poems. Based on the theory of cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphors of Kövecses (2002) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980), this study examined 200 English and Vietnamese samples from a collection of poems written in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through the application of descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative approaches and contrastive analysis, the study reveals that there are 6 categories of water images which are metaphorically used to characterize human beings. The study also finds out the similarities and differences between conceptual metaphors of water symbolizing human beings in English and Vietnamese poems. This investigation is hoped to improve our understanding of how metaphorical phenomena are interpreted across languages and enhance the process of teaching and learning English.

Reflections from the wading pool: Detoxifying racist psychological waters while submerged in their waves.

Psychology, like water, is not inherently toxic. However, historical and contemporary currents, particularly those pertaining to racism in the United States, have poisoned the field and caused harm to Black communities. As early-career scholars, the authors note both the importance of and challenges inherent in rectification, especially in light of the American Psychological Association's (APA) resolutions in 2021 aimed at addressing and redressing systemic racism within psychology and beyond. Through a primary focus on anti-Black racism and the use of an extended metaphor of water, we utilize personal reflection, interviews, and historical accounts to better understand how racism has impacted the field of psychology from within to better consider efforts to reduce its impact on the greater Black American community. We note how the APA was founded with and perpetuated racist scholarship and practice and consider the founding and subsequent resistance of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) as a cautionary tale to depict what can happen when the water becomes too toxic. We then seek to use this history of internal dynamics to better understand a superordinate goal, that is, how to extend antiracism efforts outward. We interviewed venerable Black psychologists and provided our own recommendations to consider what is necessary to support healing among Black communities impacted by racism. We conclude by acknowledging that although the waves of psychology can be consuming, terse, and painful, our ability to detoxify the water is possible with perspectives that cultivate deep pools of inquiry, mutual understanding, and action. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Translation Research on Conceptual Metaphor in the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report

In traditional rhetoric, metaphor is simply a rhetorical device used to make the mentioned things more understandable. It was not until 1980 that two cognitive linguists, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980) argued in Metaphors We Live By that the essence of metaphor is the cognitive mechanism by which abstract things are explained through concrete things, shifting the study of metaphor from the linguistic level to the cognitive level. Later on, Lakoff (1996) analyzed political metaphor from a cognitive perspective for the first time in Moral Politics, which drives the upsurge of research on conceptual metaphor in political discourse. Political discourse usually uses metaphor to conceptualize the political ideas and issues it aims to disseminate, and the use of conceptual metaphor is closely related to national culture, so the translation of conceptual metaphor has become the key to the overseas publicity of political discourse. On March 5, 2023, Premier Li Keqiang delivered Chinese Government Work Report at the opening meeting of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress. After reading the official translation on www.china.org.cn, the authors find that the Report contains a wealth of conceptual metaphors, and whether the translation of these metaphors is appropriate or not will affect the accuracy of people’s understanding of the Report. Based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory and Group’s (2007) metaphor identification procedure, this paper takes the 2023 Chinese Government Work Report and its English translation version on www.china.org.cn as the research corpus. Through manual screening, classification and statistics of conceptual metaphors, this paper explores ten types of conceptual metaphor models, namely human metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, cultural metaphor, architecture metaphor, water metaphor, animal and plant metaphor, machine metaphor, line metaphor as well as object metaphor. Based on Xiao’s (2005) cognitive strategy of metaphor translation, this paper also analyzes the translation of ten types of conceptual metaphors. This paper attempts to explore the following three research questions: (1) What are the types of metaphorical patterns in the Report? (2) How are the conceptual metaphors used in the Report and what cultural connotations and images are conveyed by them? (3) How to effectively translate conceptual metaphors in the Report to achieve a better understanding of the target audience? Microsoft Office (Word and Excel) is used as a statistical tool and a mapping tool to count specific conceptual metaphor categories and record typical metaphor keywords, and visualize the data of the proportion of various types. This paper tries to summarize and analyze the cultural connotations and images conveyed by the conceptual metaphors, so as to provide help for the English translation of Chinese political discourse and promote the international dissemination of Chinese political ideas. Through the analysis of conceptual metaphors, we can judge that although the political concepts in the Report is abstract, conceptual metaphors can express them more concretely and more easily understood by the audience through the mapping from the source domain to the target domain.

A Comparative Study of Fire and Water Metaphor in COVID-19 Reports in Chinese and English

The outbreak of COVID-19 came suddenly at the end of 2019, and soon swept the world. People used war metaphor, journey metaphor, water metaphor, fire metaphor etc. to conceptualize COVID-19. This paper aims to compare the universality and variation of the use of water and fire metaphors on COVID-19 reports in Chinese and English websites, by resorting to MIP for quantitative data collection from the People’s Daily Corpus and The Coronavirus Corpus, trying to explore the universality and variation of metaphors for COVID-19. From the perspective of resonance value, the situation of the water and fire metaphors of the epidemic in English and Chinese is entirely similar, and the difference in the water metaphor is greater than that of fire metaphor. The variation is reflected in the selection and distribution of keywords. The roots of these differences can be attributed to the characteristics and structures of the two cultures themselves, as well as the national ideology and emotional attitudes towards the same worldwide event. Therefore, with regards to the style and connotation of metaphorical expression, Chinese tends to use static descriptions that portray the atmosphere and emphasize the subjective initiative of people, while English tends to rely on dynamic depictions that state objectively and illustrate the resistance of the epidemic.

Water Metaphors in Ancient and Modern CHINESE

Water Metaphors in Ancient and Modern CHINESE

COVID-19 as WATER? The functions of WATER metaphors in the metaphorical representation of COVID-19.

Previous studies have examined WATER metaphors in different discourses, yet there has been limited focus on understanding the functions of these metaphors in constructing discourses. To address this research gap, the present paper utilised the metaphor identification procedure developed by the Pragglejaz Group and the Weak Differentiating Model to investigate WATER metaphors in the Coronavirus Corpus. The study reveals that WATER metaphors can be used flexibly for multiple purposes. These include explaining the many pandemic stages, describing the occurrence and performance of the pandemic, explaining how COVID-19 affects human life, rallying the public to take precautions against contagion, and communicating risk. This research highlights the diverse functions that WATER metaphors served in conveying intricate information and influencing public perceptions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Water metaphors and polyvalence in the Book of Proverbs

This article argues that Proverbs 18:4 contains an exceptionally rich use of water as metaphors in sapiential literature. At the same time, the verse illustrates the multivalent applicability of a single proverb. Israel’s natural environment is shortly described as pictured in the biblical texts, suggesting the interplay of water and dry land in the ancient Near East. Water and dryness have ambivalent functions, as both are necessary and both can be dangerous. In order to understand Proverbs 18:4, a short overview of water in ancient Near Eastern texts is generally given and the significance of the multivalent application of representative proverbs is illustrated. Coming to Proverbs 18:4, an interpretation is offered showing a potential of various differing understandings of the water metaphor concentrated in a single proverb. Although such a proverb now exists in a written literary context, it can be used in various contexts, and each time be applied differently in its own right, but with equal validity.Contribution: It is argued that the multifarious use of water as a literary motif in Proverbs entails that both its explicit and its implied use can function literally, metaphorically and even as metaphtonemy, with variegated valid meanings whether in individual proverbs by themselves or as part of larger literary contexts.

A flow that comes when we’re talking: water metaphors for exploring intercultural communication during early childhood assessment interactions in a Yolŋu (First Nations Australian) community

ABSTRACT Culture mediates how all people think and communicate and intercultural communication skills are required for effective collaboration. This study (2017–2021) explored intercultural communication with 40 participants in one very remote First Nations Australian community in Northern Australia. We explored the perspectives of both Yolŋu (First Nations Australian people from North-East Arnhem Land) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people, in this case Australian) on interactions during early childhood assessments of Yolŋu children (0–6 years). Our intercultural research team used a culturally responsive form of video-reflexive ethnography, a Yolŋu approach to in-depth discussion and collaborative analysis. In this article, we explore nine intercultural communication processes that were recognized and enacted by study participants. Each process is represented by a metaphor drawn from water traveling in North-East Arnhem Land. We share these processes so that others may consider exploring their relevance in other intercultural communication contexts.

Water in the Mencius: Correlative Reasoning, Conceptual Metaphor, and/or Sacred Performative Narrative?

The way the water metaphor is mobilized in Mencius 6A.2 has been interpreted and assessed from a number of perspectives. While several commentators find the analogy developed by Mencius comparing water and human nature intrinsically weak, others see it as partially effective in its use of analogical reasoning or of conceptual metaphors, especially when related to a yin-yang-based cosmology. This contribution develops an alternative perspective: it locates this metaphor in the corpus of references to water found first in the Mencius and second in the works of Chinese antiquity until the early Han period. This survey allows us to highlight three important features: (a) a quasi-sacred status is attached to the aquatic element; (b) water’s characteristics are developed according to a narrative model, causing the reader to circulate from one level of reality to another, such that the communication between the heart–mind and Heaven opens up; and (c) finally, as they mobilize a sense of contemplation and wonder, water narratives are meant to be transformative of the disciple’s consciousness and behavior.

An Investigation into Conceptual Metaphors of WATER in English and Vietnamese Poetry

This study is conducted with the aim of identifying conceptual metaphors of WATER in English and Vietnamese poetry. It seeks to find out the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of metaphors of WATER in the two languages; then suggest some implications for the teaching and learning process. In the study, descriptive, quantitative, qualitative approaches and a contrastive analysis are employed. 150 English and 150 Vietnamese samples are taken from a corpus of English and Vietnamese poems from the 19th and 20th centuries. The results show that ten conceptual metaphors of WATER in both English and Vietnamese are discovered within the scope of the study. Both English and Vietnamese poets make use of three types of poetic reworking of conventional metaphors, namely extending, elaboration, and combining. Since the meaning of a metaphor is influenced by culture and personal experiences, the concepts in the metaphors might differ significantly across Vietnamese and English cultures.

Voting in the Reconstruction Novel: Black Suffrage, Election-Day Violence, and the Regulation of the Vote

AbstractHow did fiction respond to the expansions of democracy during the Reconstruction period? This article provides a survey of Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction novels that include scenes of Black electoral participation. Such scenes of voting are also scenes of violence, either threatened or realized, and represent a range of political views. The article explores how novels use such scenes to advocate radical protections of Black voting rights, white supremacist restrictions on Black suffrage, and liberal policies of nonintervention in elections. A set of post-Reconstruction writers asserted a position as expressly moderate between the latter two: that Black political participation must be regulated. These novels pair the threat of Black voting with the civic emergencies of floods and other natural disasters in order to make the regulation of voting rights as necessary for survival as the management of a rising river. This view, positioned as a compromise between the rights provided by the Fifteenth Amendment and the fears of white reactionaries, was shared, alongside similar water metaphors, in the consequential decisions on voting rights by the period’s Supreme Court. This article shows the range of novelistic responses in the wake of the Fifteenth Amendment and the shaping of a self-consciously moderate stance that ultimately supported the national policy of Black disenfranchisement.Liberals [could] square voting regulations with their belief in laissez-faire government . . . by treating electoral reform like the management of natural phenomena, a science of managing threats as in the linked rising tides of river and Black politics in [the period’s novels].

Seeing microplastic clouds: Using ecomedia literacy for digital technology in environmental education

Connecting environmental and digital media education with the guiding metaphor of water, this article explores ecomedia literacy, a methodology that prompts students to perform a holistic analysis and systems thinking of gadgets using four zones of inquiry: ecoculture, political ecology, ecomateriality, and lifeworld. Ecoculture involves studying the discourses, symbols, and stories associated with gadgets. Political ecology relates to the ideological aspects of gadgets and how their production chain is facilitated by social structures. Materiality corresponds with how the gadget is made and what materials it’s composed of. Lifeworld is the phenomenological experience of the gadget and how it impacts sensory, cognitive, and emotional experience. This article reflects on student research performed utilizing ecomedia literacy and the insights they generated about the environmental impacts of their personal gadgets.

The Matter of Tragedy: Reading with Water

This article proposes a "matter-realist" reading of tragedy: starting from Alice Oswald's 2019 Nobody, a poem about water based on the Odyssey and the Oresteia, and from the feminist phenomenologist acknowledgment that "we are bodies of water" (Neimanis 2017), my paper argues for the importance of taking water at face value. It focuses on water metaphors and metonymies in the tragic corpus and shows how these images, on the one hand, reveal something fundamental about embodiment, identity, and situatedness, and, on the other, betray the power of water to trickle into form and language itself, often usurping their logic with its own.

Borth Waters and the Coastal Dreaming of a Midlander

After a critique of top-down colonizing attributes of water projects in the Arts and Humanities, the essay dwells on the communitarian, environmental, and aesthetic value of a short creative documentary about the raised marshland mire behind the ancient seaside village of Borth on the Mid-West Welsh coast. In a mode of theorized autobiography, it then divagates upon the metaphor of water in the author’s recurring dreams about this childhood holiday resort and its complex relations with his home in the English Midlands, an area supplied by Welsh water and that supplies many of Borth’s holiday-makers.

Water Metaphors and Evaluation of Syrian Migration: The Flow of Refugees in the Spanish Press

ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, European newspapers covered the Syrian migration into Europe in great detail, describing the path followed by millions of refugees as European authorities put up both physical and metaphorical obstacles to stop their advance. Water metaphors, a common resource in immigration discourse, were extensively used in the media during this period. Apparently neutral, expressions like the flow of refugees or a new wave of immigrants seemed to be devoid of ideological bias, and so an objective, factual way to present the news about it. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the contexts in which water metaphors were used in two ideologically opposed Spanish newspapers in this period. Results show that their descriptive function was surpassed by the evaluative one, as revealed by the high frequency of force dynamic schemas underlying the flow metaphor, the most frequent one in the sample. Negatively charged, the frequent use of flow to refer to Syrian refugees could have affected public opinion on the event. Also, a contrastive analysis suggests that there are subtle differences between the right and the left wing when using these metaphors, but they are not as significant as expected, since both newspapers tend to avoid overt negativity in their discourse on Syrian migration. Considering the relatively small size of the sample, further work needs to be done to confirm these results in the Spanish press and also to extend the analysis to other European media.

The affordances of metaphor for diachronic corpora & discourse analysis

Abstract This paper examines the utility of metaphor as an investigative tool in “long-distance” corpora and discourse studies. I show that metaphor is both important for understanding discourses and useful for diachronic analysis because it allows us to abstract out above the purely lexical level, enabling comparison across contexts where the same concept could be lexicalised differently. The case-study is concerned with the oft-discussed metaphor of migrants are water in the UK-based Times newspaper from 1800–2018 and the conventionalisation and evaluative patterns are presented. The findings confirm that the water metaphor has an extensive discourse history regarding how migration is represented in the UK press, but also that evaluations may differ significantly. The paper shows how metaphor can provide a way to find discourse evaluations and framings across different time periods. The use of second-order collocates illustrates how corpus tools can help re-contextualise data to ensure interpretation heeds contemporary framings.

In the Water: Conceptualizing and Navigating Tensions While Learning on the Move

This descriptive portrait of a multi-site media arts education program invokes a water metaphor to conceptualize discomforts that accompany embracing learning mobilities in the classroom.

Culinary Center in Dalegan Gresik, East Java with a Wave Metaphor Architecture Approach

Tourism sector has potential of development as it belongs to one of regional revenue sources for Gresik Regency. One of tourism sectors that has great potential is culinary tourism. To Gresik Regency, improving tourism is possible to do because total visits of culinary tourism get increasing from year to year. Unfortunately, a specific culinary site which can accommodate typical food of Gresik has not been available yet. Therefore, the researcher planned and designed Culinary Centre in Dalegan Gresik, East Java under the theme of metaphoric architecture. To collect the research data, several methods were employed such as field study, literature study, and descriptive analysis. The macro concept of recreational is implemented by adjusting the title in the tourism site through the micro concept of dynamic land order having relaxed elements. The micro concept of shape accommodates wavy metaphor of sea water. Thus, this design is expected to be used as the basis for Gresik development so that it becomes a tourism object which can provide food-based recreational service and entertainment to all tourists.